‘The Americans’ Season 2, Episode 7, ‘Arpanet’: TV Recap

On “The Americans,” everything is connected by a web of lies. Where last week the espionage took a back seat to the emotional, this week we have the reverse. However, some espionage led to an interesting coupling.

Oleg and Nina are an interesting pair, and that’s due to Annet Mahendru’s portrayal of her growth. In the beginning she was just a secretary at the Rezidentura pulled into the spy game by Beeman because she wanted to send her family nice things. Somewhere along the way, she fell in love with the lug, but those feelings dissipated when she found out he’d killed her friend, Vlad. Now she’s fully dedicated to Mother Russia, and Beeman’s just a sap along for the ride.

Oleg we haven’t learned much about, besides his love of “Negro music” like Curtis Mayfield and Aretha. He first seemed to be playing the Hugh Grant to Nina’s Sandra Bullock in some KGB-based rom com. Now he’s her champion, helping her pass her polygraph and offering tips like “squeeze your anus” (three words I never thought I’d string together in a blog post). Their chemistry is undeniable, even if he is a little slimy. I still can’t tell if he’s totally playing her. For the time being, though, they’re adorable.

Nina’s other boyfriend, however, is in for a rude awakening when he finds out. Hell hath no fury like an FBI agent scorned. For now, Beeman is content with Nina’s ambiguous answers to the polygraph that she “passed.” Things were kind of touchy when Nina was asked if she knew who killed Vlad. Until that point, she’d gaze at a door and picture Oleg whenever she’d lie in answer to a question. But she looked Beeman straight in the eye and admitted to knowing he killed her friend.

“The Americans” is great at giving backstory for Philip and Elizabeth. I wish they’d extend the same courtesy to Beeman. I’d really like to know what made him so dense to the women around him. He can’t see how his wife barely tolerates him. He can’t fathom the fact that his mistress would despise him for killing her friend and lying about it. After Nina finishes the polygraph, he goes to embrace her as if that awkward moment never happened. It must be nice being Stan Beeman and living in a cloud of denial.

At least we have Philip and Elizabeth, who are firmly planted in reality despite preparing to ride the virtual superhighway. New handler Kate—dressed like a film noir villainess—tells Philip he needs to plant a bug the size of a toaster oven to get into the Arpanet. No biggie. She then apologizes for the Jenningses having to work with Larrick. He seems self-serving, but I’m not convinced he’s as dangerous as the show makes him out to be.

Philip and Elizabeth bring Lucia into the mix so Larrick get her into the training ground. She’ll need to cut power to the fences so they can sneak inside. It seems a little elementary to me, but I’ll go with it. Lucia’s all for the plan, wondering where Larrick will be the whole time. Philip’s spidey senses start tingling, and gets Lucia to admit she has been to one of Larrick’s talk in Nicaragua. Lucia says it’s no big deal, but Philip doesn’t seem to trust her.

Elizabeth’s protégée is an interesting character. She’s a better-trained spy than Gregory was. She’s fighting for her own cause, though, not the KGB’s. Lucia is willing to help because she can learn from them. But that goes right out the door when their end games don’t align. That’s the case with Larrick.

Elizabeth, during a tense meeting with Larrick, finds out the timetable has been pushed up for him to go to the Contra training. She stiffens during their sit down, even with Philip hidden and ready to take him out if need be. Larrick is the only person who’s ever intimidated Elizabeth, and I’m just not understanding why. But Lucia seems to know what he’s capable of. When Elizabeth tells her of the new plans, Lucia is none too pleased. She was ready to help with the KGB mission and had her own plans to avenge her people by killing Larrick.

“Lucia burns hot,” Elizabeth tells Philip.

“Sounds like someone I know,” he says.

Here’s hoping Elizabeth can keep her mini-me in check. It’s nice to watch her pass on her knowledge to another agent.

Philip doesn’t have that luxury. The next person brought into the fray is his journalist contact Charles, who’s sleeping off a bender when Philip pours a bucket of water over his head. Philip needs Charles to get him to see a computer science professor, who waxes poetic about the future of Arpanet. It was truly inspirational to hear the professor call the Arpanet “a handshake that introduces distant computers through virtual space” and how the the interface message processor keeps information moving on an endless highway of information…to the future.” The virtual handshake=the precursor to the Facebook poke.

Philip and Charles weren’t there to just listen to plans for the future. Charles slyly left his glasses in the professor’s office for an excuse to go back and look for the password to the lab. My guess is this is Charles’ first active mission because he’s really nervous. He meets up with a greasy-wigged, creepy-eyed, janitor-playing Philip outside the lab full of students. What to do? Pull the fire alarm, of course. But Nervous Nelly has sweated and smudged the code he wrote on his hand and has to relay the code from memory. Charles is gonna get someone killed.

And he did. When Philip gets into the lab, he attaches the toaster-oven bug, but is interrupted by one of the students in the lab. We don’t see what happens, but the scene cuts to the alarms off, students returning to the lab and dead-eyed Philip rolling his garbage can down the hall, holding tight to the lid.

Philip’s not happy about this kill. Apparently Philip likes to distinguish between wrong-place, wrong-time deaths and those that are just part of the job. This one he blames on Charles, who is pumped from the mission. His adrenaline is going and he’s ready for another. When Philip asks if he’s sober, Charles is offended and tells him to taste his drink claiming it’s a cranberry and soda water. Charles pleads his case, pounds his drink and storms off. Philip has the bartender recreate the drink and sees the splash of vodka added. Shameful.

Side thoughts:

* This was the first time in weeks we haven’t heard about Emmett and Leann. Like the rest of us, Philip and Elizabeth are easily distracted by the Internet.

* This was also the first episode we haven’t seen Paige, but we were treated to Henry showing signs he’s just like his father: spying on people, breaking into a home, messing around with their electronics, etc.

So what did you think? Are you Team Beeman or Team Oleg? Did you miss Paige and Claudia? Who’s going to die when the team breaks into the Contra training ground (because you know that’s gonna happen)? And which do you prefer: egg shell or ivory?

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